European Tourism Manifesto calls for specific measures to foster sustainable tourism

In its latest statement, the European Tourism Manifesto (an alliance of travel and tourism organisations in Europe, among them EBI) put together a list of concrete investment ideas for Member States to adopt as part of their national recovery and investment plans. These ideas are aimed at enabling travel and tourism to generate jobs and growth and to contribute to the green and digital transitions, in line with EU policy objectives. The tourism sector, which accounts for more than 9.5% of the GDP and provides jobs to 22.6 million people has been one of the worst hit sectors during the crisis, must use the opportunity offered by the upcoming EU Recovery Plan funding not only to mitigate the pandemic’s impacts, but also to move towards sustainability and digitalisation.

The document lists a number of ideas, dividing them across seven categories: power up, renovate, recharge and refuel, connect, modernise, scale up, and reskill and upskill. Proposals cover a wide range of areas, from building greener tourism infrastructure, to financing research for the development of smart tourism data, or supporting businesses to upskill their workforce. The document also points out the multiplier effect of tourism and explains how investing in the tourism industry helps advance the objectives of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

In particular, the statement contains a number of proposals specifically geared towards nautical tourism. These include funding for the renovation, digitalisation and environmental transformation of marinas, the rolling out of eco-mooring solutions, funding to encourage consumers to retrofit old boats with newer engines, and funding for research, development and implementation of alternative sustainable fuels for recreational engines.

The document is provisional, as a more elaborate list of investment ideas will be published by the European Tourism Manifesto towards the end of the year. The current document can be found here.

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